Kila Raipur and the rural games
The 'rural Olympics' near Ludhiana: bullock-cart races, tractor stunts, horse dancing and tests of strength.
Every February since 1933, the village of Kila Raipur near Ludhiana has held games that draw crowds from across Punjab and abroad: bullock-cart races, horses and camels dancing to the dhol, men pulling cars with their hair or teeth, and tug-of-war. The bullock-cart races, the great attraction, have been banned and allowed again more than once by the courts and the state.
Village strength games go back much further: lifting the bori, a sack of grain, or a heavy stone, swinging the mugdar club in the akhara, and rassa-kashi, the tug-of-war, at every mela.
More sport and games
The circle kabaddi of the Punjab's villages, now played in leagues from Jalandhar to Lahore, Toronto and Birmingham.
The mud-pit wrestling of the akharas, which produced the Great Gama and Dara Singh.
The game in which Punjabis from both sides of the border won Olympic gold for India and for Pakistan.
Riders at full gallop spear a small wooden peg out of the ground, to the dhol: the great horseback sport of Pakistani Punjab.
From Lahore's first Test players to Imran Khan's World Cup of 1992 and India against Pakistan at Mohali in 2011.